Word Travels: the Namaste Garden project.

A new Word Travels project was launched in the late fall of 2019 at the Namaste Garden in Tukwila, WA in partnership with the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) New Roots Program. Merna presented poetry workshops in collaboration with visual artist Darwin Nordin. The poetry, writing and art were centered on the work of a gardener’s hands and on connections to the earth and to memories of homeland gardens and growing food. The project was put on hold because of COVID-19. The workshops were delightfully generative; the project will continue when the time is right.   

Most of the gardeners in the project are elder Bhutanese refugees having arrived from UNHCR refugee camps in Nepal. This is a group who holds on to their cultural traditions; only a few speak English. All are skilled gardeners and farmers who grow healthy food for their families and for the local farmer’s market where many immigrants and refugees can buy vegetables and fruits at affordable prices. The current plan is to continue in the spring of 2021 and paint a mural on the main building located in the garden, offered as an inter-generational community event. The mural will consist of the art, writing and poetry that came forth in the workshops in honor of the elders who participated. It will also offer an important lens into the lives of these gardeners, furthering understanding of the refugee experience and of the enduring attachments to the farms and gardens of a homeland. Darwin Nordin, a consummate naturalist, gardener, visual artist and muralist, worked along with Merna, Deepa Iyer, the IRC Senior New Roots Program Coordinator and Kamal Adhikari, IRC New Roots Specialist, who translated all of the poetry back and forth from Merna to the gardeners and back to her.